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Kelps are large brown algae or that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus. Despite its appearance and use of photosynthesis in chloroplasts, kelp is technically not a plant but a stramenopile (a group containing many ).
Kelp grow from stalks close together in kelp forest under shallow temperate and Arctic oceans. They were previously thought to have appeared in the Miocene, 5 to 23 million years ago based on fossils from California. University of California Museum of Paleontology: The Miocene Epoch New fossils of kelp holdfasts from early Oligocene rocks in Washington State show that kelps were present in the northeastern Pacific Ocean by at least 32 million years ago.Kiel, S., J.L. Goedert, T.L. Huynh, M. Krings, D. Parkinson, R. Romero, C.V. Looy. 2024. Early Oligocene kelp holdfasts and stepwise evolution of the kelp ecosystem in the North Pacific. PNAS 121: e2317054121 These organisms require nutrient-rich water with temperatures between . They are known for their high growth rate—the genera Macrocystis and Nereocystis can grow as fast as half a metre a day (that is, about 20 inches a day), ultimately reaching .Thomas, D. 2002. Seaweeds. The Natural History Museum, London, p. 15.
Through the 19th century, the word "kelp" was closely associated with seaweeds that could be burned to obtain soda ash (primarily sodium carbonate). The seaweeds used included species from both the orders Laminariales and Fucales. The word "kelp" was also used directly to refer to these processed ashes."Kelp," in Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition). Oxford University Press, 1989. Retrieved 1 December 2006
Some kelp species including giant kelp, have evolved transport mechanisms for organic as well as inorganic compounds, similar to mechanisms of transport in and other . In kelp this transportation network uses trumpet-shaped sieve elements (SEs). A 2015 study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of giant kelp ( Macrocystis pyrifera) transport anatomy looked at 6 different laminariales species to see if they had typical vascular plant allometric relationships (if SEs had a correlation with the size of an organism). Researchers expected to find the kelp’s phloem to work similarly to a plant's xylem and therefore display similar Allometry trends to minimize pressure gradient. The study found no universal allometric scaling between all tested structures of the laminariales species which implies that the transport network of brown algae is only just beginning to evolve to efficiently fit their current niches.
Apart from undergoing convergent evolution with plants, species of kelp have undergone convergent evolution within their own phylogeny that has led to niche conservatism. This niche conservatism means that some species of kelp have convergently evolved to share similar niches, as opposed to all species diverging into distinct niches through adaptive radiation. A 2020 study looked at functional traits (blade mass per area, stiffness, strength, etc.) of 14 species of kelp and found that many of these traits evolved convergently across kelp phylogeny. With different species of kelp filling slightly different environmental niches, specifically along a wave disturbance gradient, many of these convergently evolved traits for structural reinforcement also correlate with distribution along that gradient. The wave disturbance gradient that this study refers to is the environments that this kelp inhabit have a varied level of perturbation from the tide and waves that pull at the kelp. It can be assumed from these results that niche partitioning along wave disturbance gradients is a key driver of divergence between closely related kelp.
Due to the often varied and turbulent habitat that kelp populate, plasticity of certain structural traits has been a key for the evolutionary history of the phyla. Plasticity helps with a very important aspect of kelp adaptations to ocean environments, and that is the unusually high levels of morphological homoplasy between lineages. This in fact has made classifying brown algae difficult. Kelp often have similar morphological features to other species within its own area since the roughness of the wave disturbance regime, but can look fairly different from other members of its own species that are found in different wave disturbance regimes. Plasticity in kelps most often involves blade morphology such as the width, ruffle, and thickness of blades. Just one example is the giant bull kelp Bull kelp, which have evolved to change blade shape in order to increase drag in water and interception of light when exposed to certain environments. Bull kelp are not unique in this adaptation; many kelp species have evolved a genetic plasticity for blade shapes for different water flow habitats. So individuals of the same species will have differences to other individuals of the same species due to what habitat they grow in.Lobban, C. S., Wynne, M. J., & Lobban. (1981). The Biology of Seaweeds. University of California Press. Many species have different morphologies for different wave disturbance regimes but giant kelp Macrocystis has been found to have plasticity allowing for 4 distinct types of blade morphology depending on habitat. Where many species only have two or three different blade shapes for maximizing efficiency in only two or three habitats. These different blade shapes were found to decrease breakage and increase ability to Photosynthesis. Blade adaptations like these are how kelp have evolved for efficiency in structure in a turbulent ocean environment, to the point where their stability can shape entire habitats. Apart from these structural adaptations, the evolution of dispersal methods relating to structure have been important for the success of kelp as well.
Kelp have had to adapt dispersal methods that can make successful use of . Buoyancy of certain kelp structures allows for species to disperse with the flow of water. Certain kelp form kelp rafts, which can travel great distances away from the source population and colonize other areas. The bull kelp genus Durvillaea includes six species, some that have adapted buoyancy and others that have not. Those that have adapted buoyancy have done so thanks to the evolution of a gas filled structure called the which is an adaptation that allows the kelp to float higher towards the surface to photosynthesize and also aids in dispersal by floating kelp rafts. For Giant kelp, adaptation of pneumatocysts and raft forming have made the species dispersal method so successful that the immense spread of coast in which the species can be found has been found to actually be very recently Colonization. This can be observed by the low genetic diversity in the subantarctic region. Dispersal by rafts from buoyant species also explains some evolutionary history for non-buoyant species of kelp. Since these rafts commonly have hitchhikers of other diverse species, they provide a mechanism for dispersal for species that lack buoyancy. This mechanism has been recently confirmed to be the cause of some dispersal and evolutionary history for kelp species in a study done with Genomics. Studies of kelp structure evolution have helped in the understanding of the adaptations that have allowed for kelp to not only be extremely successful as a group of organisms but also successful as an ecosystem engineer of , some of the most diverse and dynamic ecosystems on earth.
Species of Laminaria in the British Isles;
Species of Laminaria worldwide, listing of species at AlgaeBase: AlgaeBase Laminariales
Other species in the Laminariales that may be considered as kelp:
Non-Laminariales species that may be considered as kelp:
Kelp forests are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world - they are home to a great diversity of species. Many groups, like those at the Seattle Aquarium, are studying the health, habitat, and population trends in order to understand why certain kelp (like bull kelp) thrives in some areas and not others. Remotely Operated Vehicles are used in the surveying of sites and the data extracted is used to learn about which conditions are best suited for kelp restoration.
Kelp ash is rich in iodine and alkali. In great amount, kelp ash can be used in soap and glass production. Until the Leblanc process was commercialized in the early 19th century, burning of kelp in Scotland was one of the principal industrial sources of soda ash (predominantly sodium carbonate). Around 23 tons of seaweed was required to produce 1 ton of kelp ash. The kelp ash would consist of around 5% sodium carbonate.Jonathan Pereira, Fred B. Kilmer, The Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Volume 1, 1854, p. 558
Once the Leblanc Process became commercially viable in Britain during the 1820s, common salt replaced kelp ash as raw material for sodium carbonate. Though the price of kelp ash went into steep decline, seaweed remained the only commercial source of iodine. To supply the new industry in iodine synthesis, kelp ash production continued in some parts of West and North Scotland, North West Ireland and Guernsey. The species Saccharina latissima yielded the greatest amount of iodine (between 10 and 15 lbs per ton) and was most abundant in Guernsey. Iodine was extracted from kelp ash using a lixiviation process.Edward C. C. Stanford, Wentworth L. Scott, ‘The Economic Applications of Seaweed’, February 14, 1862, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol 10, No. 482, 185-199 As with sodium carbonate however, mineral sources eventually supplanted seaweed in iodine production.John J. McKetta Jr. Taylor & Francis, Encyclopaedia of Chemical Processing and Design: Volume 27 - Hydrogen Cyanide to Ketones Dimethyl (Acetone), 1988, p. 283
Alginate, a kelp-derived carbohydrate, is used to thicken products such as ice cream, jelly, salad dressing, and toothpaste, as well as an ingredient in exotic dog food and in manufactured goods. (2025). 9783540926795, Springer Berlin Heidelberg. ISBN 9783540926795 Alginate powder is also used frequently in general dentistry and orthodontics for making impressions of the upper and lower arches.Powers, John M. Powers. Craig's Restorative Dental Materials, 12th Edition. C.V. Mosby, 022006. p. 270 Kelp polysaccharides are used in skin care as gelling ingredients and because of the benefits provided by fucoidan.
Kombu (昆布 in Japanese, and 海带 in Chinese, Saccharina japonica and others), several Pacific species of kelp, is a very important ingredient in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cuisines. Kombu is used to flavor broths and stews (especially dashi), as a savory garnish ( tororo konbu) for rice and other dishes, as a vegetable, and a primary ingredient in popular snacks (such as tsukudani). Transparent sheets of kelp ( oboro konbu) are used as an edible decorative wrapping for rice and other foods.Kazuko, Emi: Japanese Cooking, p. 78, Hermes House, 2002, p. 78.
Kombu can be used to soften beans during cooking, and to help convert indigestible sugars and thus reduce flatulence.Graimes, Nicola: The Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook, Barnes & Noble Books, 1999, p. 59.
In Russia, especially in the Russian Far East, and former Soviet Union countries several types of kelp are of commercial importance: Saccharina latissima, Laminaria digitata, Saccharina japonica. Known locally as "Sea Cabbage" (Морская капуста in Russian), it comes in retail trade in dried or frozen, as well as in canned form and used as filler in different types of salads, soups and pastries.
Because of its high concentration of iodine, brown kelp ( Laminaria) has been used to treat goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland caused by a lack of iodine, since medieval times. Iodine Helps Kelp Fight Free Radicals and May Aid Humans, Too Newswise, Retrieved on July 8, 2008. An intake of roughly 150 micrograms of iodine per day is beneficial for preventing hypothyroidism. Overconsumption can lead to kelp-induced thyrotoxicosis.
In 2010, researchers found that alginate, the soluble fibre substance in sea kelp, was better at preventing fat absorption than most over-the-counter slimming treatments in laboratory trials. As a food additive, it may be used to reduce fat absorption and thus obesity. Kelp in its natural form has not yet been demonstrated to have such effects.
Kelp's rich iron content can help prevent iron deficiency.
In 2007, Erlandson et al. suggested that kelp forests around the Pacific Rim may have facilitated the dispersal of anatomically modern humans following a coastal route from Northeast Asia to the Americas. This "kelp highway hypothesis" suggested that highly productive kelp forests supported rich and diverse marine food webs in nearshore waters, including many types of fish, shellfish, birds, marine mammals, and seaweeds that were similar from Japan to California, Erlandson and his colleagues also argued that coastal kelp forests reduced wave energy and provided a linear dispersal corridor entirely at sea level, with few obstacles to maritime peoples. Archaeological evidence from California's Channel Islands confirms that islanders were harvesting kelp forest shellfish and fish, beginning as much as 12,000 years ago.
During the Highland Clearances, many Scottish Highlanders were moved on to areas of estates known as crofting, and went to industries such as fishing and kelping (producing soda ash from the ashes of kelp). At least until the 1840s, when there were steep falls in the price of kelp, landlords wanted to create pools of cheap or virtually free labour, supplied by families subsisting in new crofting townships. Kelp collection and processing was a very profitable way of using this labour, and landlords petitioned successfully for legislation designed to stop emigration. The profitability of kelp harvesting meant that landlords began to subdivide their land for small tenant kelpers, who could now afford higher rent than their gentleman farmer counterparts.J. M. Bumsted, The People's Clearance: Highland Emigration to British North America, 1770-1815, 1981 But the economic collapse of the kelp industry in northern Scotland during the 1820s led to further emigration, especially to North America.
Natives of the Falkland Islands are sometimes "Kelpers".[5] allwords.com definition for "Kelper",[6] dictionary.com definition for "Kelper" This designation is primarily Exonym.
In Chinese slang, "kelp" (), is used to describe an unemployed returnee. It has negative overtones, implying the person is drifting aimlessly, and is also a homophonic expression (, literally "sea waiting"). This expression is contrasted with the employed returnee, having a dynamic ability to travel across the ocean: the "sea turtle" () and is also homophonic with another word (, literally "sea return").
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